Alt-country star Lyle Lovett and His Large Band are in concert July 19 at Door Community Auditorium.(Photo: Courtesy Door Community Auditorium)

FISH CREEK - The big names on Door Community Auditorium's 2019 season are certainly big enough to merit attention — Lyle Lovett, Rosanne Cash, Mavis Staples, The Righteous Brothers, Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter, among others — but the schedule also offers several changes that help provide a wide variety of performers.

The season, announced Friday, may offer the largest variety of musical genres and performances on its main stage in the nine years Executive Director Cari Lewis has been with the auditorium.

"I'm excited about the variety," Lewis said in an interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. "I think it's the most eclectic season I've ever worked on in my time here."

It's also the largest schedule the auditorium has had in Lewis' time. For many years, Northern Sky Theater presented its indoor fall season at the auditorium, following its summer run of original musicals in the the outdoor amphitheater at Peninsula State Park.

This year, Northern Sky is opening its own performance space in its new Creative Center and moving its fall shows there, freeing up all of September and more than half of October for the auditorium. And the auditorium is taking advantage and expanding — from 19 main stage shows last season to 25 this year.

"With Northern Sky moving its fall show, we had six to seven weeks of prime time to fill," Lewis said.

Much of that will be taken up by the auditorium's Blues, Roots and American Stories Fest. Called "Blues & Roots Fest" during its first three years, it offered three concerts within a week in early November — well outside Door County's tourist season.

Gospel and R&B music icon Mavis Staples is in concert Aug. 29 at Door Community Auditorium.(Photo: Chris Strong Photography/Courtesy Door Community Auditorium)

With the newly open space in the schedule, the auditorium will host five concerts for the festival as the summer season winds down and the busy fall festival season kicks in. It runs from Aug. 29, with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame blues/R&B singer Mavis Staples, to Oct. 5, with popular regional R&B band Big Mouth & the Power Tool Horns.

In between are local blues-rock favorite Cathy Grier and the Troublemakers, blues vocalist Shemekia Copeland with African-tinged jazz band Ranky Tanky and a double-bill of Native American roots musicians Wade Fernandez and Bill Miller.

Also returning, after a long absence, is comedy. A stand-up show by radio and TV comic Tom Papa is set for Sept. 6, and Oct. 20 is reserved for a live comedy/variety show hosted by Charlie Berens of the viral YouTube series "Manitowoc Minute" — comprised of commentaries on news and the Wisconsin dialect. Grammy Award-winning bluegrass band The Special Consensus opens for Berens, which Lewis noted falls on the same weekend as the hugely popular Sister Bay Fall Fest.

It's the first time a comedy show has played the auditorium since impressionist Rich Little in 2010, and before that one has to go back to Tim Conway in 2003 and Bob Newhart in 2002.

"It's been probably a decade since we had comedy on the Main Stage," Lewis said. "We heard from audience members, committee members and board members that they would like to try it."

Returning and rising stars

Lovett, Cash and Staples are among the Grammy Award winners making return appearances. Lovett and His Large Band, which plays July 19, played shows in 2015 and 2016 that sold out soon after tickets went on sale, while Staples also played there in 2015. Country-folk songwriter Cash, the daughter of Johnny Cash, has appeared at the auditorium several times, but not since 2007. She takes the stage July 16.

Other returning acts — some after more than a decade away — are ukulele wizard Jake Shimabukuro, who played a popular show in 2016 and returns July 26; world roots sister duo Rising Appalachia on July 30; renowned big band The Glenn Miller Orchestra on June 29; and folk music veteran Greg Brown on June 21.

Romantic melodrama finds its way to the stage with a bit of nostalgia Oct. 13 as Gross and Baxter, who starred as Michael J. Fox's parents in the hit 1980s sitcom "Family Ties," star in the rescheduled two-person play "Love Letters." The show originally was to take place this past February but was postponed because of a scheduling conflict.

As often is the case, the auditorium's season also offers its share of up-and-coming musical acts and niche favorites, including Americana trio I'm With Her on July 12, soulful vocalist Amos Lee on July 13, Southern swing band Squirrel Nut Zippers on Aug. 11, "Paddle to the Sea" by Third Coast Percussion on Oct. 25, "Shadowland" by modern dance troupe Pilobolus on Jan. 28 and a celebration of the jazz and pop standards of the 1940s and '50s with Davina and The Vagabonds and Hot Club of Cowtown on Valentine's Day.

Alejandro Escovedo, a longtime underground favorite alt-rocker and internationally respected songwriter, teams with local alt-rocker pat mAcdonald for a July 8 concert.

The classic rock/pop audience has a variety of choices, including the July 22 show with the unmistakable vocals of the Righteous Brothers, considered among the pioneers of 1960s "blue-eyed soul" with songs like "Unchained Melody" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."

Door Community Auditorium also has two classic rock tribute concerts this season. Classic Albums Live, a group that presents live, note-for-note re-creations of classic rock albums, will perform “A Night at the Opera” by Queen on July 3; and Tusk, which calls itself “The World’s No. 1 Tribute to Fleetwood Mac,” plays the music of that band Aug. 1.

"We've seen in the past five years that our classic rock shows do very well," Lewis said. "I think particularly in Door County, when people are coming for a vacation, they want something that's light fun, and those fit the bill."

Fans of local musicians will have their chances to catch some of their favorites, too. Besides the Big Mouth and mAcdonald appearances, folk songwriter Katie Dahl performs over Thanksgiving weekend with her new Americana band, the Capitol Sun Rays (which includes members of Birds of Chicago, a frequent act on the Peninsula), and "Play It Forward," the annual Christmas-time benefit concert featuring a multitude of musicians, takes the stage Dec. 30.

One concert that Lewis especially noted is Choir! Choir! Choir! taking place Sept. 9. It's a free singalong choral concert led by two Canadians, Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman, who put out an open call for community members who want to join the show. They teach the songs (from a selection of pop, country, rock and more) and arrangements and lead the performances, which have been held in venues ranging from pubs to Carnegie Hall.

"It's really caught on as a type of guerrilla concert or pop-up concert," Lewis said. "I think an act that brings us together is one of the most positive things we can do to keep the community healthy."

Dec. 30:"Play It Forward," annual holiday concert with variety of local musicians

Jan. 28: "Shadowland" by modern dance troupe Pilobolus

Feb. 14: "The Finest Hour," blues, jazz, standards and swing from the post-World War II era with Davina and The Vagabonds and Hot Club of Cowtown

Door Community Auditorium is at 3926 State 42, Fish Creek. Tickets for all shows go on sale May 14 to the public, May 7 to VIP members. Subscription packages are available. Sponsors are needed for many of the shows. A variety of community concerts also will be held, including one by the U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America's Mobility Brass on May 25.

For tickets or more information, including VIP membership or sponsorship opportunities, go to the box office, call 920-868-2728 or visit dcauditorium.org.